TB is a contagious disease — it spreads from one person to another through inhalation of tiny droplets from coughs or sneezes. Outbreaks of TB are on the rise in many countries. Such outbreaks are particularly alarming when in public institutions as populous as schools and hospitals. Public Health Departments must respond rapidly to contain an “outbreak” by assessing the TB status of people most at risk through contact with an infected patient. QIAGEN wants to help.

QIAGEN strongly believes that TB control requires public–private partnership. We have leading, innovative detection products approved for clinical use in many countries that can assist assessment of TB disease status in individuals. Sadly, these are of diminished benefit if the infrastructure, training, and funds are unavailable to monitor and contain outbreaks. In this age of frequent travel, QIAGEN is an active campaigner for a worldwide approach to fighting TB and finances consultations with and between health departments worldwide on containment programs.

QIAGEN initiatives continue to develop and are currently running in India, the USA, and UK. In India, a hotspot for TB and increasing commercial migration, we are encouraging more funding on containment programs and launching the flexible, economical careTB PCR Assay — part of the QIAGENcares product initiative. QIAGEN provides US Public Health Departments with our Clinical Coordinator and other services to relieve the management of a “contact investigation” through our TB Operation Support Solution (TBoss) initiative. The only costs for the departments are those related to running the TB test in the laboratory. In the UK, QIAGEN partners with synlab Pharma Institute to provide testing kits for the Synlab Outbreak Service (SOS), which provides a cost-effective rapid response to TB outbreaks.

Some of us may be carriers of the bacteria that cause TB, but show no symptoms of active disease. Treatment of such latent TB is strongly advised to avoid progression to active disease. But a standard tuberculin skin test (TST)/Mantoux test for latent TB requires 3 days, 2 patient visits, is subjective in interpretation, and has poor test specificity. Our QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) tests are done with whole blood taken during a single visit, and robust results could be available within a single day. We believe that physicians can simply combat TB quicker and with greater confidence!

Left unmonitored, TB prevalence will escalate globally. Our aim in partnering nationally with health departments and laboratory services is to more actively participate in the fight to contain TB by helping to alleviate some of the challenges associated with rapidly mobilizing resources.